New York:
An Indian-American physician has been arraigned in a US federal court on a multiple-count superseding indictment that he allegedly over-prescribed pain medication that resulted in the deaths of four patients.
Pawan Kumar Jain, 62, of New Mexico pleaded not guilty plea to the 114-count superseding indictment and remains in custody pending trial.
He faces up to 30 years in prison and over a million dollars in fine. Mr Jain was initially charged in a 111-count indictment in April last year.
The indictment charged Mr Jain with 61 counts of unlawfully dispensing controlled substances and 50 counts of healthcare fraud.
The superseding indictment, which was filed last month adds two new counts of the unlawful dispensing of controlled substances resulting in death and a new count of healthcare fraud resulting in death.
According to the superseding indictment, Mr Jain allegedly committed the offenses charged between April 2009 and June 2010.
Mr Jain was a licensed physician with a neurology subspecialty who operated a pain management medical practice in Las Cruces.
Mr Jain's medical license was suspended in June 2012 and subsequently revoked in December 2012 by the New Mexico Medical Board.
The charges allege that Mr Jain unlawfully dispensed prescription painkillers, primarily Oxycodone and methadone, to patients outside the usual course of medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.
It is also alleged that he engaged in a scheme to defraud two health care benefit programs, Medicare and Medicaid, by causing claims to be submitted for payment for prescription medications he dispensed to patients outside the usual course of medical practice and without legitimate medical purpose.